Parades, a festival and dusk candlelighting ceremony are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in the Los Angeles area to mark the start of the seven-day African-American festival of Kwanzaa.

The KwanZaa Gwaride Parade, themed "A Helping Hand,'' stepped off from Adams and Crenshaw boulevards on Wednesday morning. It marched to Leimert Park, where the festival was planned in the afternoon, culminating with a dusk candlelighting ceremony.

Pasadena will conduct its 30th annual Kwanzaa celebration from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the Pasadena Public Library's La Pintoresca Branch. Thanayi Karenga, daughter of Kwanzaa creator Maulana Karenga, will lead the event, which will include music, stories and refreshments provided by the Pasadena Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. The Tournament of Roses Royal Court is scheduled to make an appearance.

"At the very heart and center of the celebration of Kwanzaa is the ethical imperative and social obligation of the cooperative creation and sharing of an inclusive Good,'' Maulana Karenga wrote in his annual founder's message.

"This principle and related practice are rooted in its ancient origins in the African harvest and the communitarian worldview and way of life that undergirded and informed it,'' the founder said. "The ancient roots of Kwanzaa in the shared African harvest and the celebration of it, immediately bring to mind the sacred teachings given to us by our honored ancestors in the Odu Ifa which tells and teaches us we are to constantly strive and struggle to bring good into the world, share it and not let any good be lost.''